From small to insignificant: Climate impact of the Kyoto Protocol with and without the US

Abstract

American president George W. Bush has declared that he will not ask the Senate to ratify the Kyoto Protocol. This commentary explores the potential impact of implementing the Kyoto Protocol without the participation of the United States. Because, in practice, the United States would have taken on a relatively large share of the Protocol’s abatement commitments, we conclude that implementing the Protocol without the participation of United States will lead to significantly less reductions in global emissions. The international permit price will be considerably lower if the United States does not participate.